The present invention relates to a method and system for processing information and in particular information received from bar code scanners.
The present invention also relates to bar codes which are encoded with information corresponding to an externally assigned entity, preferably an Internet address. For the purposes of this disclosure, such a bar code is described as a web code.
Web codes are different from UPC codes, since web code goes to a particular website to get information, while scanning a UPC code could lead one to different websites.
Numerous people and businesses have recognized the benefit of today's information rich society and reap the benefit from the availability of such information and the wide reach of the information-starved consumer. Today, most companies disseminate information by advertising information source addresses and locations on the Internet or other network systems. Currently, a person seeking information from a particular information source or location is required to correctly identify the information source, memorialize it for later reference, and then recreate the information address on a PC and retrieve the desired information.
A common example of this is advertising of web-site address. A company will typically issue a print ad for a specific product for publication in print media. The advertisement will also include a reference to a web site. The web site is generally a company web site which includes a catalog section and/or service description. Once a consumer uses his personal computer at home or otherwise to obtain access to the Internet, the consumer must then recall the advertisement, look up the web address and navigate to the product specific location within the company's web site. This process is time consuming and subject to multiple errors by the consumer. In fact, since web addresses are quite often very long and cryptic, a single error in the “network path” to the company's web site will prevent the consumer from gaining access to the desired information about the product.
In order to correct some of these problems, prior art systems have suggested using bar codes to provide an error free method for storing a web address or product specific code. The consumer can then use a device to read the bar code and then, once the bar code reading device is coupled to a network enabled system, utilize the data retrieved from the bar code to go to connect to that web address or otherwise call a store to place an order. Such systems have not been commercially feasible. Incorporating web addresses of the information sources within bar codes presents problems from both the technical and practical perspectives. First, some web addresses may be too long to be coded within a bar code scheme that has a predetermined maximum length. Second, placing a long bar code within print media is aesthetically unappealing. Third, since the web addresses are often subject to change (i.e. companies develop new web sites, or move existing sites to another location on the web), a change to the web address requires modification of the bar code on printed media. Furthermore, the products or publications with old web addresses incorporated in the bar codes will have incorrect information, which may discourage consumers from ever seeking to obtain information from a particular information source. Another problem with these systems described in the prior art is that consumers are required to purchase, carry and learn to use a bar code reader, a PC or modem device, and have sufficient knowledge and ability to use web browser and data transfer software that downloads data from the bar code reading device to the PC or network enabled device.
Other major problems that plague most currently used systems are cost inefficiency and limitations on the scope of provided information. In order to provide a simple and reliable system and obtain consumer acceptance, companies that have sought to utilize bar code systems direct customers and consumers to a specific address (i.e. a particular web site) having specific information about the product. Furthermore, to provide information services to their customers and consumers, these companies provide single application devices. Utilization of single application devices limits consumer usage and precludes competing companies from exploiting the company's investment in hardware, software and cost of information gathering, even though the benefits from the use of this system are given to the consumers for free or at some discount.
Other prior art systems propose the use of “license plate” numbers, which utilize a generic or pre-existing product identifier that is encoded in the form of a bar code. These systems also suffer from the similar problems and shortcomings as those that are previously described. As with other single application systems, the hardware that is utilized to support the information system is company specific, thereby forcing either the company or the consumer to absorb the entire cost of purchasing, installation and maintenance of the hardware. In addition, all these prior art systems require that the company maintain a database discriminator to identify the bar codes and associate them with the corresponding web locations.
The hardware that is used to read bar codes and employed in information systems to date is relatively complex and complicated in its operation and use. The complexity of the bar code hardware and other above-mentioned limitations of the prior art systems that utilize this hardware interfere and quite often prevent wide scale distribution and acceptance of the products.